Autumn is a time of year that brings an abundance of change. The temperature slowly starts to fall, the leaves begin to change color, and children everywhere begin to get back in to the old routine of going to school. Although autumn brought all of these things to me in the past years it also brought a sense of elation knowing that my high school swim season was about to begin.Swimming is one of those sports you can never really become an expert at. Even the professionals like Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin go their whole career knowing there is always something they can improve on. Trust me when I say I am no Natalie Coughlin when it comes to swimming, but I consider it a personal expertise because it is one of the few things that I am truly passionate about because of what it has taught me about hard work and being part of a team.
My passion for swimming started when I was in the eighth grade. I used to dance and play softball and over the years I had developed a knee injury from participating in those sports. My physical therapist (my mom) suggested that I should look into swimming because it can be very therapeutic to the muscles around your knee. I reluctantly joined our local town swim team not knowing what to expect. But I was soon shockingly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. With every dive into the water and every stroke I felt myself looking forward to every practice more and more.
Every one of those practices pushed me deeper in deeper into the swimming world. There are so many things in this little world that only swimmers know. First there is the language of swimming, a 200 IM, a 400 free relay, what does it all mean? Then there is the little things like wearing the coolest practice suits, the one with the brightest colors, or the coolest design. The routine of a swim practice is also something to get used to, the warm-up, and then the grueling two hours of hard work that makes every muscle in your body ache and makes your lungs feel like they are about to burst. So why put myself through all that pain and hard work? The answer is simple. Every time I jump off the block in a race, or look up at the timer and see that I have just shaved a second off my best time I know that all my perseverance and hard work has paid off. It is a feeling every swimmer is familiar with, to love swimming is to hate it.
Before I came to love swimming I never really cared about anything enough to put all of my heart into it. Sure, I played the cello in orchestra but never practiced, I played softball but never put in those extra hours to become good at it, with swimming it was different. I would spend hours in the pool every week trying to perfect this or that, and I never felt the need to stop. This is why I feel that swimming is truly my expertise, it is the one thing that I know and will never forget. Even today, every time I step into a pool all of those feelings of exhilaration rush right back to me. With every stroke I take, the less my muscles have to think about it because it is something that I have been doing for countless hours for six years.
All of these countless hours have made me a good swimmer but being a part of a team has also taught me a lot about myself. The swim team not only gave me the expertise to be the swimmer I am today, but it also gave the expertise on how to be a teammate and work as a unit instead of an individual. In the early years of my swimming career, I was so focused on dropping my times and improving personally that I overlooked the importance of being on a team. When I got to high school my outlook quickly changed. Soon I was looking to those girls as the support system I never knew I needed but was so glad that I had. Through the years, our bonds grew stronger and I started to realize that not only was it important to achieve my own goals, but to help my teammates to achieve theirs. When I was a senior, I got to lead the team as a captain. Leading the team finalized my expertise in being a part of the team and doing everything I could to help them.
I have learned so much from the sport of swimming. Not only have I learned to love a sport but I have also learned how to love a team. Expertise can be defined in many ways, whether you are Yo Yo Ma, expert cello player, or just a high school swimmer trying their hardest to beat their times and improve. Swimming is the closest thing that I have ever come to being an expert at. Although I may never get to being a complete expert at it, I plan to keep working to try and get there.
My passion for swimming started when I was in the eighth grade. I used to dance and play softball and over the years I had developed a knee injury from participating in those sports. My physical therapist (my mom) suggested that I should look into swimming because it can be very therapeutic to the muscles around your knee. I reluctantly joined our local town swim team not knowing what to expect. But I was soon shockingly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. With every dive into the water and every stroke I felt myself looking forward to every practice more and more.
Every one of those practices pushed me deeper in deeper into the swimming world. There are so many things in this little world that only swimmers know. First there is the language of swimming, a 200 IM, a 400 free relay, what does it all mean? Then there is the little things like wearing the coolest practice suits, the one with the brightest colors, or the coolest design. The routine of a swim practice is also something to get used to, the warm-up, and then the grueling two hours of hard work that makes every muscle in your body ache and makes your lungs feel like they are about to burst. So why put myself through all that pain and hard work? The answer is simple. Every time I jump off the block in a race, or look up at the timer and see that I have just shaved a second off my best time I know that all my perseverance and hard work has paid off. It is a feeling every swimmer is familiar with, to love swimming is to hate it.
Before I came to love swimming I never really cared about anything enough to put all of my heart into it. Sure, I played the cello in orchestra but never practiced, I played softball but never put in those extra hours to become good at it, with swimming it was different. I would spend hours in the pool every week trying to perfect this or that, and I never felt the need to stop. This is why I feel that swimming is truly my expertise, it is the one thing that I know and will never forget. Even today, every time I step into a pool all of those feelings of exhilaration rush right back to me. With every stroke I take, the less my muscles have to think about it because it is something that I have been doing for countless hours for six years.
All of these countless hours have made me a good swimmer but being a part of a team has also taught me a lot about myself. The swim team not only gave me the expertise to be the swimmer I am today, but it also gave the expertise on how to be a teammate and work as a unit instead of an individual. In the early years of my swimming career, I was so focused on dropping my times and improving personally that I overlooked the importance of being on a team. When I got to high school my outlook quickly changed. Soon I was looking to those girls as the support system I never knew I needed but was so glad that I had. Through the years, our bonds grew stronger and I started to realize that not only was it important to achieve my own goals, but to help my teammates to achieve theirs. When I was a senior, I got to lead the team as a captain. Leading the team finalized my expertise in being a part of the team and doing everything I could to help them.
I have learned so much from the sport of swimming. Not only have I learned to love a sport but I have also learned how to love a team. Expertise can be defined in many ways, whether you are Yo Yo Ma, expert cello player, or just a high school swimmer trying their hardest to beat their times and improve. Swimming is the closest thing that I have ever come to being an expert at. Although I may never get to being a complete expert at it, I plan to keep working to try and get there.